Friday, December 02, 2011

Penn State University research team has developed a new system that employs magnetism for the purification of hybrid nanoparticles, which are structures comprising two or more types of nanomaterials that can be viewed only through an electron microscope.

According to Mary Beth Williams and Raymond Schaak, who led the research team, the novel method will not only eliminates impurities from hybrid nanoparticles, it will also assist scientists to differentiate between hybrid nanoparticles that look similar under the microscopic view but have dissimilar magnetism.

The innovative mechanism has the potential to enhance electronic information-storage devices, medical-imaging technologies, drug-targeting technologies and drug-delivery systems. According to Schaak, the presence of impurities can alter the qualities of a sample, for instance, the sample may become toxic due to the presence of impurities.